Analyzing Dewey’s latest operating report

In the nearly three months since Dewey & LeBoeuf’s bankruptcy filing, the firm’s estate has attempted to repay its debts by collecting outstanding bills and fighting tooth and nail to reach a clawback settlement with former partners. And the net result of all that that work? Just shy of $40 million, according to rough calculations by the Wall Street Journal.

According to Dewey’s latest operating report, it has collected $39.9 million in outstanding client bills through July. A recently reached clawback settlement, in which ex-partners will pay between $5,000 and $3.3 million each to avoid future Dewey-related lawsuits, netted another $70 million. The combined earnings will help to pay down Dewey’s debts, which reportedly total at least $315 million.

Unfortunately, bankruptcy isn’t cheap. Dewey’s expenses since its Chapter 11 filing amount to nearly $70 million. Of that total, $3,808,360 has gone to law firms, consultants and advisers assisting in the firm’s wind-down, and $566,586 has been paid out to the two remaining Dewey partners, Steve Horvath and Janis Meyer.

Going forward, the firm has a few more ways to pay its bills. Dewey advisers have already said that they hope to retrieve $60 million in unfinished business claims, which would target profits on work that ex-partners took to their new firms. More money could also come in from unpaid client bills and last-minute additions to the clawback settlement (partners can still sign on to the clawback settlement, albeit with a 25 percent penalty charge).